Mr Griffin admitted that he was isolated in his support of Nikolaos
Michaloliakos, the Golden Dawn leader who, with two other his party's MPs,
has been jailed and faces criminal charges

"I'm one of the few friends they have got," he told the Telegraph at meeting on Friday night packed with Golden Dawn members, many of whom were wearing paramilitary style uniforms.

"They're not perfect but that is none of our business. The level of repression directed at Golden Dawn is outrageous. It is an affront to democracy not just in Greece but throughout Europe. It is a very dangerous precedent."

Greek state prosecutors have unearthed a incriminating photos and videos on personal computers and mobile phones showing Golden Dawn members making Nazi salutes and brandishing guns.

The party's leadership has also been charged with involvement and participation in a criminal organisation after the murder of Left-wing rapper by a Golden dawn supporter last September.

The BNP leader and MEP, who has a masters degree in law from Cambridge, has prepared a legal challenge at the European Court of Human Rights in a bid to defend Golden Dawn from "liberal, totalitarian repression".

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He admitted that the appeal to a European human rights court that he opposes was "deeply ironic" but insisted that it could be a tool to inflict a "humiliating and expensive defeat" on the Greek state and "liberal European elite".

"Anywhere a genuine radical nationalist party becomes seen as a threat to the system, Europe's liberal elite says it is fine to crush it. That is wrong and dangerous," he said.

In a statement with a veiled reference to Jewish financiers or "usurers", written in a prison cell by Mr Michaloliakos and read out by his wife, the Golden Dawn leader lavished praise on Mr Griffin, comments that might come back to haunt the BNP leader who insists he "is not a Nazi".

"I extend my greetings to the militant patriot and great Member of the European Parliament Nick Griffin who has staunchly defended the political movement of the Golden Dawn," he wrote. "It is with the same faith that Mr Griffin is struggling daily under adverse conditions for the independence of the British people against bankers and usurers. Our common fight continues."

In their human rights challenge to the Greek authorities, Golden Dawn will argue that television images of the arrest of Mr Michaloliakos violated his dignity and human rights.

The far-Right group will also submit photographs of Ancient Greek statues with their arms raised in salutes similar to the Nazi Siege Hail gesture.

Ourania Michaloliakou, the daughter of the imprisoned leader, said: "It fills us with hope to see an MEP from sister-nationalist movements be interested in the case of Golden Dawn and to help us in this difficult struggle we have chosen”.

Police raided the houses of Mr Michaloliakos and other Golden Dawn members and uncovered incriminating videos.

In one film Mr Michaloliakos expressed his admiration for the former Greek military dictatorship and accused Jews of “owning monopolies and raising prices”. He pledged "if we assume power, no more Pakistanis”.

In another film he admits Golden Dawn members are Nazis and that “everyone must kill the Jew inside them”.

Other evidence leaked to the press has showed party members holding weapons, wearing Ku Klux Klan outfits and carrying out paramilitary exercises in rural areas of Greece.

Evidence recovered from the home of Mr Michaloliakos included pictures of German soldiers executing blind-folded prisoners,and a copy of the Joseph Goebbels’ Nazi Principles of Propaganda.

Golden Dawn has risen from a 0.29 per cent share of the national vote in 2009 to win18 seats and taking seven per cent of the vote in 2012 amid a deep recession triggered by the country's debt crisis. Opinion polls currently put the party in third place in terms of support.

Many have compared the party's meteoric rise to that of the Nazis in 1930s Germany.

Incomes in Greece have contracted by over a third, youth unemployment has hit almost 60 per cent as many Greeks have blamed eurozone imposed austerity measures for their countries problems.

Last week, Mr Griffin was declared a bankrupt and launched himself on a new career as a video chef of "good, standard, traditional British fare".

His first cookery programme on the BNP's YouTube channel shaped him preparing cooking a beef stew for far-Right activists who "can’t afford to put enough decent food on the table.”